Paper for Botanical Art and Illustration

Which is the best paper for botanical art and illustration?​

A perennial question asked by many artists, especially when their favourite paper changes​The answer varies depending on how you work - find reviews and recommendations below

Below you can find

Basic paper data - to make the most of paper you need to know how it is made and how it can perform

Paper-making and different types of paper - improve your understanding of how papers are made and why they perform differently

How to test watercolour paper - general principles plus tests for watercolour paint, coloured pencils and pen and ink

Reviews of different papers by botanical artists - all aiming to identify the best paper for botanical art and illustration - including a video

Different brands of paper identified as suitable for botanical art and illustration. Some are suitable for some media only. Some suit some watercolour paintings techniques better than others. There's also a video about paper for coloured pencils techniques.

I'm hoping to develop a gallery of images of tests by different artists of watercolour paper. Ideally using a common template for testing papers so that it's easy for people to make a comparison.

Basic paper data - things you need to know about paper​

Paper-making - All paper was handmade until the 19th century. Most is now made by machine but some is still made by hand. Some machines (mould-made) attempt to emulate the traditional processes.

Even a paper made by one manufacturer can change over time and when their supplies of materials to make the paper change.

Paper can deteriorate and change colour over time. Whether it does and how fast this happens depends on the nature and the quality of the materials and processes used to make the paper. In general:

100% cotton paper is considered to be the best for botanical art.

calcium carbonate is often added to provide a buffer against discolouration caused by acids present in atmospheric pollution.

Archival paperhas a number of characteristics. It is:

permanent - will not deteriorate for a long time and can be used for permanent records (or fine art)

durable - will not tear easily

acid-free - will not deteriorate because acid levels in the fibres made to make paper are eliminated or reduced.

​Sizing affects how a paper performs it changes the absorbency, and the durability of the paper - how it wears over time or under stress. It generally reduces the tendency of paper to absorb liquid. Sizing may contain different constituents depending on its main purpose.

internal (tub sizing) is added at the wet end of the paper-making process prior to sheet formation (see below). Usually it's intended to help the paper run through the machine.

if you wet a paper to stretch it to prevent cockles then you may well remove some of the sizing. Try working on a heavier weight paper instead.

Touching a paper can also affect how it performs - especially if any of the paper comes into contacts with e.g. natural oils in the hand.

The weight of a paper can affect whether or not is cockles when drying. Lighter papers can be soaked and then stretched by attaching to a board. (see below for how) However heavier weight papers 300lb and more do not need to be stretched as they don't cockle.

MAKE A RECORDFor each sample of paper you want to test and/or use, you need to record:

​The variations in the surface depend on what processes were used to make the paper.

Paper for illustrations

Other types of paper used for botanical art include:

​Illustration board - frequently used by commercial artists and artists who use dry media such as graphite and coloured pencils

Bristol Paper/Board - the Plate surface is often used for pen and ink work

Paper-making ​

What is paper made of?

Watercolour paper can be made from:

cotton lintners. Cotton is archival and stable i.e. unlikely to deteriorate over time. Lintners can be short or long fibre. Short lintners are the by-product of the cotton used for the manufacture of cloth. Cotton prices rocketed in 2010 when floods in Pakistan led to the loss of 10% of the total cotton output for that year.

cellulose - this is a chemically treated substance made from wood pulp. When you see "wood-free" it means the paper is actually made from wood pulp that has been treated with chemicals to eliminate the problems associated with wood. For example, the lignin in wood decays fast, creates acid and causes paper to deteriorate over time (i.e. becomes brittle and breaks up).

Sometimes paper is made of a mixture of "wood free" cellulose and cotton and a percentage is generally indicated.

​Traditional Watercolour paper used to be made from linen rags hence the term rag paper.

Fine art should not be made on paper created from recycled waste because of the uncertainties associated with what it contains.

What gets added to paper?​

In the paper-making process, substances get added to the raw materials of cotton or cellulose

Sizing is the most important additive for watercolour paper. Without sizing many papers would behave a bit like blotting paper.

Sizing influences

the absorption of water - and consequently how fast paint sinks into a paper

the strength of a paper - its resistance to abrasion or tearing

the smoothness of the paper - reducing the fuzziness

​Sizing can be internal or applied just to the surface (tub sizing)

If sizing is soft (internal) then paint (and ink) will sink in. For example printmaking papers need to be soft sized.

If sizing is hard/strong (additional surface sizing) the paper is most resistant to water - meaning paint will sit on the surface. It's not good for wet in wet techniques.​Various substances can be used for sizing which is why different watercolour papers can behave in different ways.

​Complaints about paper are often due to the sizing being contaminated. This can happen in the art shop but can also happen due to how an artist handles the paper and how they treat it prior to painting.

Paper is not naturally very white. Very white papers have always had brightening/whitening agents added to them

Titanium Dioxides is stable and does not cause the paper to darken over time

Optical brightening agents (OBAs) are unstable, decay and cause paper to become less white/bright over time. Use ultra violet light to detect the presence of PBAs

Other Additives: Fungicides

Water used for watercolour painting may contain living 'things' i.e. it's not sterile

Good quality watercolour paper is treated with fungicide to stop the growth of mould

Use sterile water for painting if your paper does not contain fungicide.​

How is paper made?​

Handmade paper is typically made using the same processes as those used for hundreds of years.

Both mouldmade and machine made papers are made on a machine - but the machines are different.

A cylinder mould machine attempts to emulate traditional handmade paper-making, is designed for making fine art paper and finishes and has become well-established in Europe.

a flat bed Fourdrinier paper-making machine makes machine made paper (such as cartridge paper and cheaper drawing papers). One of the characteristics of machine made paper is that all the fibres lie in one direction. It tears easily one way (along the fibres) and not at all easily across the fibres.

The Wet End - where water is sucked and filtered out from the slurry of fibres to create a web of paper fibre

The Wet Press section - the wet fibre web is is squeezed between a solid roll and a felt supported by a perforated roll. High pressure squeezes out even more water.

The Dryer section - the dryer sheet of paper fibre passes through a series of felts and very hot cylinders arranged in a serpentine manner. Drying gets the water content down to c. 6% (i.e. typical indoor atmospheric conditions)

The Calender section - the dry paper is now smoothed (and shrunk) through rollers top and bottom (which can be internally heated with steam). These exert pressure on the paper.

How paper is made using a modern-day Fourdrinier Machine

Mould made paper - characteristics​

superior surface stability

surface texture

do not tear easily because the fibre formation is random beautiful surface texture.

deckle edges

clear watermarks

differences between the 'felt side' and the 'mould' (wire mesh) side of the paper.

Machine (Fourdrinier) made paper - characteristics​

very consistent quality

tears easily - because all the fibres are lined up and running the same way (i.e. the machine direction)

How to test paper - general principles​

These are all suggestions from botanical artists of how to test new paper you've not tried before prior to starting work on a proper drawing or painting. You might also like to try testing your current paper to provide a baseline.

General principles when testing paper

Test BOTH SIDES - I guarantee you may well be surprised. They generally have a different surface and they may behave in different ways

Test papers at the SAME TIME. This isn effective way of controlling other variables which might affect performance and outcomes eg how you're mixing colours; what the environment is like (eg water in the atmosphere)

Use the SAME COLOURS for all papers (whether paints, inks or pencils) - identify a set of the colours you use regularly which need to perform well on the paper. Stick to this basic palette for all tests. You can add more colours or change brands of paint for papers you like but do the basic colour palette tests first so you've got some consistency which helps with the rigour of comparisons.

Test lightfastness and constancy of paper colour over time

Take a small sheet of paper and cut it in half. Label each half (on the same side) with the brand/weight. Now place one half in bright sunlight (eg tape it to a window which gets south facing light. Place the other half inside an archival container inside a flat drawer - so it is not exposed to any light. Review after six months to see if there is any change in colour or whether they remain the same.

How to test paper - using watercolour paint​

Applying watercolour paint​

First ​draw lots of squares for testing purposes

​Wet surface

fill the square precisely with a wash and a definite edge

apply paint as a wash to a surface which is wet

apply a second layer to the first - and review/record how long it takes for each layer to dry

apply a wash to the paper and graduate the wash (dark to light) down the page using only water

Dry surface

apply dry brush marks (hatching or dots/spots) to a paper which is dry. Repeat on a surface which is painted and ry

apply paint as a wash to a surface which is dry. Repeat and apply watercolour wash to a dry paper which has already been painted. Does the second glaze disturb the first?

Precise edges

Review how precise the edges are on both wet and dry paper

Changing the paint on the paper​

Manipulating watercolour paint

​blend two colours together on the paper so there's a smooth transition and no edges

soften the edge of moist paint with a clean moist brush

Removing watercolour paint

lift and remove an area of freshly applied paint with a clean moist (not wet) brush

test with staining and non-staining colours to assess how easy it is to lift and remove

​

What the paper does to the paint​

Absorbency

Time and assess how fast it takes for a paper to dry if you apply exactly the same amount of paint and water to different papers. (Note: layering your papers and then running a broad brush loaded with paint across them does NOT deliver the same ampount o

Quality of colour

​how does the paper affect the colour of the paint? Is it bright or dull?

Granulation

Using two paints which are MORE and LESS likely to granulate, paint a wash and assess the extent to which the paper causes the paint to granulate.

draw loads of squares. First with one wet into wet wash. Another square with two wet in wet layers, timing the drying time for each layer, and so on to see how many it will take. Another with a graduated wash, and so on to test wet on dry glazes, hard and soft edges, granulation patterns on the surface, and how it will take correction with different methods of lifting and sponging. I'm also looking to see how clean and vibrant the colours are, and how quickly the glazes dry

Reference - how to test watercolour paper​

Lower quality sheets are usually brittle to folding and retain the "memory" of rolling up. Better quality sheets will not break under extreme folding and return to flat after they are unrolledHandprint

​The Best Paper for Botanical Art & Illustration ​- video and other reviews by artists​

Below are THREE very useful videos by Lizzie Harper in which she reviews samples of possible replacement papers for Fabriano Artistico. Watch these to find out her very useful, verbal descriptions of painting on the papers.

​The papers tested are:VIDEO ONE:

Moulin du Roy HP,

Arches 300gsm/140lb HP,

Canson Heritage 300gsm HP,

the new Saunders Waterford (St Cuthberts Mill) and

Botanical Smooth. 300gsm HP (St Cuthberts Mill).

VIDEO TWO

Stonehenge Aqua and

Fluid Hot Press papers

VIDEO THREE

Clairefontaine Hotpress

Winsor & Newton Medium surface Heavyweight Cartridge paper

Strathmore 500 Series Imperial watercolour paper (hot press)

Fabriano Artistico Hot Press (the new stock, available to buy)

old stock of Fabriano Artistico Hot Press (no longer available) and

Fluid 100

On her blog she has two companion blog posts providing more information and images about the individual papers.

I do want to stress that these are reviews from my own perspective and my own (slightly untraditional) style of doing botanical watercolours, and there's every chance that if you were to try these different papers you'd come to different conclusions. Paper choice is very subjective.

This is a similar video by Wendy Hollander. The papers she is testing are as follows:

Made in Germany​​Hahnemuhle Fine Art Papers - a paper which is less well used by botanical artists but used to good effect by some.

Made in Italy

Fabriano Artistico - available as traditional white - and extra white. Once the "go to" paper for very many botanical artists with methods that demanded too much of most other Hot Press papers. Now out of favour following the change in process used to make it and the unreliability of its surface.

Fabriano have done some trials since the meeting. To date they have been unsuccessful at identifying what needs to be different to produce the old surface. This means no prospect of a change back to the old surface in the near future. We’ve now agreed to go through the same exercise with St. Cuthberts Mill. They recently produced two new papers as a response to the problem. This Mill only produces fine art paper and has an incentive to produce and/or refine paper to meet the needs of a group of artists with specific requirements. Fabriano Paper - an update (SBA Winter Bulletin)

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